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Atráve
Atráve /at̪ɾaβe/ (formerly known as Yechevic) is a constructed language. Originally created for a fantasy novel in late 2014, Atráve has become far more fusional and complex. Originally drawing influences from languages such as Irish, Spanish, Cherokee, Japanese, Hawaiian, and Hindi, Atráve changed both sound-wise and grammar-wise; having initially been an English-like language with little inflection (perhaps even less than English itself), throughout its development numerous things, such as gender, case, and verbal inflection, have been added, and Atráve is no longer based on any natural language. Atráve is now a heavily-inflected, generally fusional language (with a few instances of other types of inflection) with a VSO word order; nouns are inflected for gender (masculine or feminine, depending on the noun's beginning), noun class, case (common, genitive, dative, and ablative), count (mass or count) and number (singular, dual, and plural). Verbs are inflected for aspect (simple, continuous, habitual, and perfect), tense (present, past, imperfect, and future), mood (indicative, subjunctive/conditional, and imperative), person (first, second, and third), and number (singular, dual, and plural). Adjectives are inflected for number (singular, dual, and plural), and often gender. Etymology The word Atrábhe ''has no clear meaning, although it is purposefully etymologically similar to the word ''ebhe "tongue". In English, as the /β/ sound does not exist, it is approximated as a v'' and thus called ''Atráve ''/ɑtʃɹʌveɪ/.'' the accent mark on the á'' is optional, although since it is easy in this case, this article will spell it with the accent mark. The adjectivial form is also ''Atráve. '' The word ''Atrábhe ''itself in Atráve is an abstract, count, feminine noun. Its declension is shown below: Note: As a specific language cannot be a plural (''Englishes?), dual and plural forms do not exist for the noun Atráve. Despite being strictly a singular noun, it is not a mass noun. Classification and Dialects Atráve is a constructed language with just one speaker (its own creator), and thus it is technically a language isolate. It only has one standard language, with no deviation whatsoever (although this is due to having only one speaker). Atráve is almost entirely a written language, with no practical spoken usage; as such, its grammar is far more developed than its pronunciation. It is written in the Latin alphabet with almost no orthographical depth. Atráve is not based on a fictional culture or nation, but would hypothetically be spoken by humans and lacks any serious differences from natural human languages, containing inflection, a fully-developed syntax, and irregularity (although, in practice, it has too small of a vocabulary to be used realistically by an advanced civilization). Although it (roughly) grammatically resembles the Indo-European languages (especially the Celtic languages, which share Atráve's VSO word order and mutated adjectives), its vocabulary shows no particular resemblance to any existing language. If it were classified as a real language, it would certainly be classified as an isolate. Technically, Atráve's only ancestral form is its various older stages of creation, particularly Alomian (coming from Alomia, a fictional world whose language Atráve has its roots in). However, these languages were very similar to English and contained little inflection. This means that Atráve is one of few languages to have gained more inflection throughout its 'evolution'. Shown below are a sentence written in proto-Atráve in August 2015, as opposed to its counterpart from July 2016. The older version of the language lacks gender, VSO word order, case, contractions, and uses sé as the copula instead of san. Mimshe Zhanutiká sé ya mimshe uni'isdira àzh sha taman bant sha Cypress Station jaskila mimat shenslam Alfa Odahot Omega. San na mimshe atrábhe mimshe asraitat le sa Cypress Station ve taran mimatid Alfazo Omeghaéd. The Atráveic language is a language created by the Cypress Station for his book From Alpha to Omega. Atráve went through its most radical period of change in fall 2015, when concepts such as subject dropping, (some) verb conjugation, and noun gender were added in September-October 2015. As opposed to that, some of the latest changes include the world al "and" being changed to a ''and the third-person dual and plural present verb endings being changed from ''-ent and ''-ant'' to ''-ei'' and -''ai''. Phonology Atráve features a somewhat complicated consonant system, with about 30 consonants total. There is considerable allophony in Atráve, especially with the palatal and velar-uvular consonants. Shown below are the consonants. If a sound's orthography does not match with its IPA symbol, then the way it is written is shown in italics below. Two phonemes are also listed in parentheses, as they are marginal consonants: - /ŋ/ is not a distinct phoneme, and does not occur in native Atráve words. Whenever nk and ng occur, the two consonants are pronounced on different syllables. For example, mánka ''"used to happen" is pronounced /man̪ka/. - The uvular fricative /χ/ or /ʁ/ occurs marginally in various cases in Atráve. /χ/ is sometimes used in place of /x/ for ''x, as well as gh word-finally in some cases (such as talágh ''"group" or "union", which is usually pronounced /t̪əl̪aɣ/ but sometimes /t̪əl̪aχ/). Vowels Phonotactics Vowel Strength Atráve features a system of vowel strength. The vowels ''a, e'', and ''i all have "strong" and "weak" forms: /a/ (strong); /ə/ (weak) /e/ (strong); /ɛ/ (weak) /i/ (strong); /ɪ/ (weak) The vowels o'', ''u, and ü ''are not affected by vowel strength. Although the strength of a vowel is variable in many cases, there are a few rules that dictate when a vowel is strong: - If a vowel has an accent mark, such as in 'é'''ra ''/'e'ɾə/ "true" or ''im'í'd'' /ɪm'i'd̪/ "rain" - If a vowel is part of an diphthong (two or more vowels in a row without an accent), such as in ''sol'ua'' /sol̪'''wa/ "(I) see" Homophones Due to Atráve's heavy inflection, sometimes multiple words are pronounced the same. Although the presence of the acute and grave accents help reduce the number of homophones in writing, sometimes even that doesn't cover it all. For example, these words are all pronounced /mim/: mím ''"word", ''mim "name", meme ''"meme", ''mím "I were" (subjunctive), mìm "he/she/it catches on fire" Writing System Atráve is written with the Latin alphabet. It consists of 24 letters (the English letters minus q and w). In addition, the five vowel letters (a e i o u) can be written with an accute accent, a grave accent, or in the case of u, the diaresis. There are numerous digraphs, formed with h'': ''bh, dh, gh, hl, sh, th, ''and zh''. An important note is that /w/ and /j/ are written as u'' and variably ''y and i'', respectively. They occur only in diphthongs without ''jahi. The accute accent (Atráve: jahi) is used roughly once every five or six words in Atráve. It serves multiple important purposes: - Distinguishing homophones, such as o'' "not" and ''ó "without" or ta "you (informal)" and tá "new (masculine)". - Indicating a strong (stressed) vowel; in most Atráve words, stress is variable, while it is fixed in words with jahi. - Indicating that two adjacent vowels are not pronounced together as a diphthong; this results in the vowel without the jahi being weak as well. For example, tais "square" is pronounced /t̪ajs/ while táis "same" is pronounced /t̪a:ɪs/. - Breaking up a diphthong with /j/ or /w/. For example, io /jo/ "type" and ío ''/i:o/ "ethnicity". The grave accent (Atráve: ''jahi out) is far less common than the accute accent, usually used in a handful of common words that have it. It serves a couple of purposes: - Distinguishing a homophone if there is already a form of the word without a jahi and with a jahi. For example, se "(he/she/it) pays", sé "(he/she/it) be (subj.)", and sè "annoying (fem.)". The vowel /u/ can be written in two distinct ways: u'' or ''ou. In the language's fictional history, u ''and ''ou were once distinct vowels, with ou being pronounced /œ/, but it has long since merged into the much more common /u/. The consonant y'' is used only at the beginning of words or when it is preceded and succeeded by a vowel. Whenever the /j/ sound comes after a consonant, then it will be written as ''i followed by another, accented vowel. For example, hié ''/çje/ as opposed to ''hie /çi:ɛ/. W'' is never used in native words; in Atráve, the sound /w/ is written solely with ''u ''(or, in some cases, ''o). English loanwords are exceptions. The same applies for Q'', as well. Except for in English loanwords, ''q is replaced with k''. Orthographical Irregularities Atráve has little orthographical depth; however, there are a couple of disparities between the written language and how it is pronounced. Most notably, the diphthong ''oi is pronounced /wa/, not /oi/ as inferred by the orthography. This is important, as the suffix ''-oi'' is the dual marker for adjectives and a common plural marker for masculine nouns. /oi/ is written as oí. For example, xátipoi /''xat̪ipwa/, the dual of the adjective "sharp", or ''pasanoi /pasan̪wa/, the plural of the noun meaning "headquarters". The word ó'' "without" is pronounced /wo/, not /o/ as inferred by the orthography. The word ''deál "about" can be pronounced either /d̪ɛal̪/ (as inferred by the orthography) or /d̪jaːl̪/ (more common except in stressed positions or careful pronunciation). Grammar Atráve grammar tends toward agglutination and fusion, while in general being a fairly inflected language, with about two in every three written words containing inflection. Questions Atráve questions take two forms: open-ended questions that use the particle lót (which by itself means "what") in various ways, and yes-no questions that do not have lót. This is similar to English, where questions either have a (w)h- word or are yes-no questions. It is also worth noting that Atráve uses inverted question marks (¿?). However, the main difference between English and Atráve questions is word order. In English (and many other European languages), wh-'' words as objects are moved up to the front of the sentence, while in Atráve they remain in place: ''¿San is lótel? ''She is who? / Who is she? ''¿Tagrad ila lót do? ''You found that when? / When did you find that? The particle ''lót ''is inflected for class, as well. The main distinction is between the abstract/inanimate form ''lót and the sapient form lótel. Yes-no questions are far more simple. However, in Atráve, the verb must always come first in questions (as well as plain statements): ¿San an? He is? ¿San an? Is he? Pronunciation note: in Atráve, the verb is almost always intoned higher, rather than the variable intonation of English questions. Usually, interjections, such as "yes?" "no?" or "right?" are not emphasized. Numbers In Atráve, numerals do not fall under any distinct part of speech, although they could be described as adjectives, nouns, or adverbs. The numbers do not inflect (except for dei ''(0), which inflects for class, and ''ye (1), which inflects for gender and case), and always come after the noun (again, except for dei and ye). Listed below are the examples of usage for each number 0-10, with notes on usage: * dei da ''- 0 things, no things The number dei has five inflected forms, one for each noun class. In addition, dei can be used as a determiner meaning "no", and the form del can also be used as a pronoun, meaning "nobody". It should also be noted that nouns with dei always take the singular: ''Talud, '''dei kacfa gim sa jabal. Please, no cigarettes (lit. "cigarette") in the building. ''San mimatun áz '''den mimat' savrat má áz '''dei lavíl. A library with no books is like a body with no soul. * ye''' da - 1 thing The number ''ye inflects for number, two cases (common/dative/ablative, genitive), and, ironically, number. This is because it also functions as the indefinite article (although it is usually dropped as the object of a copula or in reference to an object in general rather than one specific object). Due to its two functions, the singular ye or ya can translate as either "a" or "one", although often one of the two can be inferred by context. However, yen, yan, and yat are not numerals in the truest sense. ye hlama ''"an apple" or "one apple" ''ya kamaban "a car" or "one car". yen kamabane vacím ''"a car's wheels" ''yan aínan "a pair of eyes", "a couple of eyes" yat ayastoula "a group of people", "a few people", "some people" Ye is also a pronoun meaning "someone" or "something". ¿''Hei ye laún?'' Is there something/someone there? * ''dain '''shi - 2 things The number shi is the first number to follow the noun, rather than precede it. It is also the only number with which the noun has the dual number (for example, mím'in'' instead of mím ''(singular) or ''mím'a'' (plural)). The other independent numbers (that all take the plural and follow the noun) are: * ti ''- 3 * ''tilkê ''- 4'' * ashdu ''- 5 * ''nisut -'' 6 * ''nó - ''7 * ''tamra - ''8 * ''iten ''-'' ''9 * ''sat -'' 10 * ''ça ''- 11 * ''çi - ''12 Atráve numbers begin to agglutinate (gather smaller numbers to form bigger ones) starting with 13 (. Smaller numbers following larger ones are added to the larger one, while smaller numbers preceding larger ones are multiplied. Numbers beginning with twelve are usually written as numerals - for example, ''14 instead of sat-tilkê. sat-ti - 13 (lit. ten-three) ti-sat - ''30 (lit. ''three-ten) naizh a ti-sat - 130 (lit. hundred and three-ten) Negation Atráve has two different particles used for negation: o'' and ''de. (As mentioned in the "Numbers" section above, the particle dei can be used to the same effect before a noun). Both particles are placed before the verb. Unlike in English, which places the verb "to do" before the verb in many cases, the Atráve negative particle is used with no auxiliary support. - O'' (pronounced /o/ before a consonant, but /w/ before a vowel) is used before indicative verbs. ''O ára''' hlatasiga taran bene alirir. He '''could not' defend his fracturing country. ''O bárai sara xeltar.'' They don't have social skills. - '''''De (/d̪e/) is used before verbs in the subjunctive or imperative mood, as well as the infinitive, adjectives, and adverbs. It contracts to d' before vowels (it can be distinguished from the contraction of trá "the" by whether or not the word is a noun or verb). Fadhua on '''de mé' an laún.'' I hope that he won't be there. (subjunctive) ¡'''De zeile' ben nistromím! Don't read''' my journal! (imperative) Vira xiva, vai '''de xiva' xím. It was quiet, but '''not' too quiet. (adjective) Nouns Pronouns Atráve personal pronouns are complex, inflecting for gender, number, person, and case. As the subject of a sentence, they can be dropped, as verbs inflect for the person and number of the verb's subject. Although they may seem complex at first, many (especially the dative and ablative) pronouns are predictably derived and are rarely used. First Person Pronouns Note: the pronoun la/be is the only remaining word in Atráve that distinguishes between the nominative and accusative. This stems from the fact that be is also the first person singular reflexive pronoun, as will be discussed down below. Second Person Pronouns Second person pronouns distinguish between two levels of formality, represented by the basic pronouns ta "you" (informal) and esenu "you" (formal). * Ta /t̪a/ is used with friends, family members of the same generation or younger, and children. It is considered an insult to purposefully use ta with a person of higher authority. * Esenu /esɛn̪u/ is used with strangers, people of higher authority (such as parents, bosses, or officials), and the elderly. It is also always used in formal or business settings, unless the speaker and the addressee know each other well. Note: The phrase á lo kelne "to the people" may be used as a more formal version of "lau", especially if one were to be making an official speech or presentation. Third Person Human Pronouns Third person pronouns are by far the most complex. When referring to mixed groups with they, the gender of the pronoun should match up with the majority of the group's gender: sai if most or all of the group is female, and tai if most or all is male. If the group is about half-and-half, sai is usually more appropriate due to Atráve's feminine-default nature. Third Person Non-Human Pronouns Non-human nouns tend to have less complex and more regular inflection. They are divided into two categories: animal pronouns are used for animals only (animals are never referred to using human pronouns, like in English), while inanimate pronouns are used for plant, physical, and abstract nouns. It is worth noting that the animal pronoun nou inflects like a feminine pronoun, but is technically genderless (as the default conjugation form in Atráve is the feminine). However, inanimate pronouns inflect for gender (masculine or feminine), depending on the object's gender. Reflexive Pronouns Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object of the sentence are identical. They should not be confused for object pronouns. Sometimes, these pronouns are present where they would not be in English. This is in verbs that require an object in Atráve that don't in English, so the reflexive pronoun is used. ''Lehlua '''be. I wash (myself). Ud '''lou' e taceked. You go (yourself) to the mountain. Another common use for these pronouns is the "it's X" construction: ''Sua be. ''It's me. (lit. "I am me/myself") ''Séu lou. ''It's you. (lit. "You are yourself") They are also often used to emphasize a pronoun, such as in the ''ázh go construction, meaning "by __self/ves" or "together": San '''om' savak 2014''. This is him in 2014. ¡Fadhe-'''lou '''laún! ''Wait there! (lit. "Wait-yourself there!") ''Som 'áz la be'.'' I am by myself / I am alone. (lit. "am with I me") ''Majibhéim esdi 'áz in'.'' Let's sing this together. (lit. "sing this with we us") Number Atráve nouns inflect for three grammatical numbers: singular, dual, and plural (dual is not present in English). Generally, the dual suffixes are very predictable. Meanwhile, plural suffixes vary between nouns, although there are general rules. The general suffixes are as follows: The suffixes elide in some cases: * For feminine nouns ending in -i and masculine nouns ending in -a, the vowel of the suffix is taken off. For example, ''sunei > sunei'n'' "girl(s)" and tastá > tastá'n ''"journal(s)". However, a number of nouns, predominantly feminine ones, have irregular plural forms, with a couple having irregular dual forms as well. The two most common trends are: Feminine plurals ending in -''a'': fán'a', moil'a', már'a', natar'a'' Feminine plurals ending in -''ím'': ''náním', aín'ím', thater'ím'' Masculine plurals ending in -''an'': ''kanarán', tabh'an'' Masculine plurals ending in -''oi'': pasan'oi, bajan'oi', telesat'oi' Two nouns have an fully irregular dual, as well as a fully irregular plural: ''yehev > hevni > ayastoula, meaning “person/people”, and shabh > shaubhán > zhebhól, meaning “life/lives”. English loanwords have the dual and plural suffix ''-es''. For example, album > album'es /al̪bʊmes/. Gender Atráve nouns have two genders: feminine, and masculine. While feminine nouns make up approximately 51% of the dictionary, they make up approximately 61% of the nouns used in written text. The fact that feminine nouns make up the majority of Atráve's lexicon makes it stand out in contrast to most other gendered languages. Unlike European languages, in Atráve, the gender of a noun is determined by its beginning, rather than its end. Although the tendency is for "soft" sounds to be feminine and the rest masculine, there are a few rules: * Vowels tend to be somewhat irregular. While most nouns beginning in i''- or ''u- are feminine and almost all beginning in o''- are masculine, ''a and e'' are unpredictable. * Very few nouns begin in ''h, but it does have an unusual system of assigning gender: nouns beginning in ha- or ho- are masculine, while those that begin in he-, hi-, or hu- are feminine. Thus, hán is masculine while hizh and hiá are feminine. * A few nouns have a gender that is contrary to its initial sound. Most of them are common words: da ''"thing", ''don "neck" and kradha "tomato" are feminine, while miskith "fish", mathíl "size", and ghoma "car" are masculine. * A few nouns can take either gender - some (mostly referring to animals) take a specific gender in each usage depending on the gender of its subject. The general gender of each beginning is: Masculine: bh-, b-, p-, t-, g-, k-, l-, r-, c-, j-, ha-, ho-, ç-, tl-, o- Feminine: m-, v-, f-, z-, s-, dh-, th-, gh-, x-, n-, sh-, zh-, he-, hi-, hu-, y-, hl-, i-, u- Gender affects numerous things in Atráve, many of which will be discussed later: * The gendered form of adjectives. Each adjective beginning in a consonant has a distinct masculine and feminine form, with consonants forming in gendered pairs. For example, ''tór'' "big" is the masculine form, while ''sór'' is the feminine form. * The articles. Most notably, sa is the basic masculine definite article, while na is the feminine. * The case inflections. For example, the feminine dative suffix is ''-id'', while the masculine is ''-ed''. * Some determiners inflect for gender as well, such as esdi (masc.) and azdi (fem.), meaning "this". Some, such as ila "that", don't change based on gender. Case Atráve features four functioning noun cases: common (essentially the merger of the nominative and accusative), genitive, dative, and ablative; in addition, a vocative case can be invoked with particles. With the exception of the common singular, which is the uninflected plain form of the noun, suffixes are always present on the noun to indicate number, case, and gender. * The common case is used for the subject and direct object of a sentence, as well as the object of most prepositions and the default form of the noun. The articles for the common case are: * The genitive case is used to show either possession of an object or to form an adjective-like noun, usually for compound words. A small few verbs take their object in the genitive case. The genitive suffix is a bit of a messy affair that changes depending on the noun’s gender, number, and ending. Especially confusing are nouns ending in a vowel: the final vowel either has an accent added (or taken away if there already is one), and then it is followed by ''-n''. The suffixes are as follows: * Some nouns have an irregular genitive form, such as bene > bené, shabh > shaubhi, and yehev > yehebhi''.'' The articles for the genitive case are: The genitive case in Atráve has two main jobs: to mark possession, and create an adjective-like form of the noun. With possession, the genitive suffix is put on the noun that possesses or owns the other object, with the possessed object (which can be in any case) coming after. Oftentimes, both nouns will have an article. Sén sha sun'i''' no aínin síloi''. The girl’s eyes are blue. Sometimes, the possessed noun is genitive itself, possessing another noun: Mav sha hán'e''' sha dh'en' na zóre''. It’s the end of the semester. (lit. "is the year's the half's the end") With the adjectivial form, the genitive is also used where in English, a plain form of the noun would be used. In Atráve, nouns can be used as adjectives (such as in “football player”, “photo album”, or “movie theater”), but they are put in the genitive case: San Paul fútbol'i''' türneiem''. Paul is a football player. (lit. "football's player") Damua thaskr'át''' album’s lasitam''. I have many photo albums. (lit. "photos' albums") Yé om sout simax'át''' hanaked''. He went to the movie theater. (lit. "movies' theater") A few verbs take their object in the genitive case, as well: Mánra yo ila shalx'án. It happened to that city a lot. (lit. "happened that city's often") When proper nouns are in the genitive case, then the genitive suffix is always placed after the main word - if the noun is a first and last name, the suffix is placed on the first name. Abraham Linkon "Abraham Lincoln" Abraham'e''' Linkon saraistrá'' "Abraham Lincoln's presidency" (lit. "Abraham's Lincoln presidency") Linkon-tarai "President Lincoln" (lit. "Lincoln-president") Linkon'e'''-tarai saraistrá'' "President Lincoln's presidency" (lit. "Lincoln's-president presidency") * The dative case 'is used to show both the indirect object of sentences, as well as marking a general movement toward the noun. The dative suffix changes depending on the gender and the number of the noun, but it is much more straightforward than the genitive case: *If a feminine noun ends in ''-i or a masculine noun in ''-e'', then the final vowel is accented and ''-d'' is added. For example, kelne > kelnéd ''"people". The articles for the dative case are: The dative case's uses are very straightforward. Firstly, it plays a grammatical role marking the indirect object of the sentence. Usually, the indirect object is placed after the object. ''Mánra sa tun om e okos'ed. The boy moved to the table. ''Ashrav hlamahl '''béd'. (They) gave an apple '''to me'. It is also used whenever indicating motion towards something. It is thus always used after the prepositions ras "to", rasnal "into/toward", odahot "through", and ve (when it means "for"): Umes be '''ras' Colorado'ed. I will be going to Colorado. ''Kamas om '''rasnal ta'id. He/she walks towards you. ''Faiz is '''odahot noi safra'ínid. She looks through the glasses. ''San azdi '''v'esenu'ed. This is for you. * The 'ablative case '''indicates motion outward or from something. The ablative suffix is based off ''-u for feminine nouns, and -''o'' for masculine nouns, with a z-'' added before the stem after nouns ending in a vowel: The articles for the ablative case are as follows: The ablative case is the least common case overall, but it still serves an important purpose, always being used after the prepositions ''dhém ''"from", ''bén "from/out of/out from", and vega "outside of". Due to this, dhém and bén are largely unnecessary words, ''Yé om '''bén sha nánu 'a ras taran ghomaed. He went out of the house and to his car. ''Masta is (dhém) sha '''benezo tue seúni. She is from the country north of here. ''Óhenelent vega sha '''nelesatu'. They travel outside of the village. 'Imíru' imírid zhenserarad. From sea to shining sea. Verbal Nouns Verbal nouns are usually just the ''-va form of the verb. However, there are some irregular verbal nouns: gega > ge viga > vi kisavatega > kisné Verbs which themselves derive from nouns (such as óheneleva "to travel, journey", from óhenel "journey") do not have verbal nouns. Verbs (For more on verb conjugation, as well as the conjugation tables for irregular verbs, please visit this article here) Atráve verbs are conjugated for person, number, mood, tense, and aspect. They are divided into four conjugation groups, depending on the 3rd person singular form's ending, which are each marked with a distinctive ''-ga'' suffix (which acts as the infinitive, plain form of the verb, as well as the gerund in some cases.) -''ega'' verbs are most verbs that end in a consonant. -''siga'' verbs are most verbs that end in a vowel. -''oga'' verbs are most verbs that end in -''hl'' or ''-s''. -''iga'' verbs are most verbs that end in ''-ra'', -''re'', -''c'', -''r'', as well as a few outliers. In addition, reflexive verbs (verbs that, without a distinct object, identify the subject as the object) take the reflexive particle after the infinitive with a dash. The dictionary form of these verbs is followed by ''-om''. For example, eusiga-om "to go" and mestusiga-om "to tire, or become tired". Overall, Atráve verbs have 8 tenses. Examples given are panega "to praise", fasiga "to notice, see", ahloga "to think", and miriga ''"to say through writing", four short regular verbs from each class. Only the third-person singular forms are given below; these tenses also inflect for person and number. * The basic present, marked by the verb without the ''-va suffix (pan, se, ahl, mir) * The preterite, marked by plain verb with a ''-ra'' or -''ta'' suffix (pan'ra', fa'ra', ahl'ta', mir'ta') * The future, marked with a ''-(e)s'' suffix (pan'es', fa's', ahl'es',' '''mir'es') * The (uncommon) present/future conditional, marked by a ''-(n)ai suffix (pan'ai', fa'nai', ahl'ai', mir'ai') * The present/future subjunctive, marked by a ''-é'' suffix (pan'é', fa'é', ahl'é', mir'é') * The past subjunctive/conditional, marked by an ''-í suffix (pan'í', fa'í', ahl'í', mir'í') * The imperative, marked by an ''-e on verbs ending with a consonant (pan'e', fa, ahl'e', mir'e')* *Reflexive verbs place the reflexive particle after the imperative, i.e. taxe-lou! ''"kill yourself!" or ''páe-lou! ''"stand up!". In this case only ''lou (2nd person singular, both formal and informal) and in (2nd person dual/plural) are used. For the sake of conjugating adverbs (which are identical to adjectives), verbs also have a sort of gender, which almost always corresponds to the first sound of the infinitive (for example, gega is masculine and viga ''feminine). There is one exception; ''sadega, including its verbal noun sad, take masculine adjectives. In addition, Atráve verbs have a number of impersonal forms: * The ''-ga'' form (pan'ega', fa'siga', ahl'oga'), which acts as the infinitive, the verbal noun, and takes auxiliary verbs to form aspects * The past participle, marked with an ''-(a)t'' suffix (pan'at', fa't', ahl'at'), which also acts as the perfect tense, passive form, and verbal adjective * The present participle, marked with an -''(a)r'' suffix (pan'ar', fa'r', ahl'ar'), which also acts as a verbal adjective (but is used more sparingly in Atráve than in English) This is the present simple conjugation of four regular ''-ega'', -''siga'', -''oga'', and -''iga'' verbs in the present tense. Past Tense: Passive-Impersonal Form In Atráve, a passive-impersonal form for verbs is created by the suffix ''-u''. The passive-impersonal is used whenever a sentence would be passive, yet there is not a clear subject of the noun. Prav'u''' is. She is accepted. (lit. "X accept her") ''Na'ru''' na simaxa. The movie was made. (lit. "X made the movie") The particles ''áila and amím The particles áila and amím are often used to introduce a topic or a person, and is a common replacement of "this is" or "that is". They are technically verbs, but no other conjugated forms (even the infinitive) are ever used. Áila''' sa rásman on naram''. This is the announcement that I made. ¡''Is '''amím! It's her! Adjectives In Atráve, adjectives have either three forms (if they begin with a vowel) or six (if they begin with a consonant). Adjectives inflect for gender (at its beginning) and number (at its end). It is a strict rule that adjectives always ''follow the nouns or verbs that they describe: ''Na nán '''sór' "the big house" (lit. "the house big") ''Trá lal '''cif' "the cold water" (lit. "the water cold") Gender Most adjectives have two distinct gender forms. With the exception of adjectives with a masculine form beginning in ''l or r'', the feminine form is used as the default form of the adjective. Each consonant comes in gender pairs: For example: ''Mav aleta '''xaci'. "It is a hot day." (feminine) ''Mav lazhoula '''kaci'. "It is a hot night." (masculine) ''Mav aleta '''adar'.'' "It is an important day." (feminine, but gender isn't shown because the adjective begins with a vowel.) Mav lazhoula '''adar'.'' "It is an important night." (masculine) Number In addition, adjectives, regardless of their ending, inflect for number that agrees with the noun. An orthographical note: if an adjective ends in ''-o'', then the dual suffix is just ''-i'', while if it ends in ''-i'', then its plural suffix is just ''-tam'': Na thevúl asolo ''"the common version", ''no thevúlin asolo'i "the (two) common versions" Na salfat vini "the yellow shirt", sout salfatím vini'tam "the yellow shirts" Case Atráve adjectives do not have quite as complex inflection as nouns, but there are distinct dative and genitive/ablative suffixes in the singular: For example: n'akoya sór "the big school", sh'akoyán sóris "the big school's", il akoyaid sórad "to the big school", sh'akoyazu sóris ''"out of / from the big school" The ''-a-'' in the ''-ad suffix is dropped when an adjective ends in any vowel, while the ''-i-'' in ''-is'' is only dropped in adjectives that end in i. Comparative Forms Atráve adjectives also have two comparative forms, comparable to the English suffixes ''-er'' and ''-est''. Although the table looks a little daunting, most of these are fairly uncommonly used; for example, ruisiseitam means "(of) the louder ones". General Information Adjectives remain the same both attributively (this '''tasty' pizza) and predicatively (''this '''pizza' is tasty). Because the subject is often dropped in Atráve and the copula occurs before both the subject and the object, oftentimes the two forms are indistinguishable. ''San madua xadh. "Music (in general) is bad." San madua xadh. "(It) is bad music." Usually, the difference can be determined by a combination of common sense (who really thinks that all music is bad?), context (i.e. is the speaker currently listening to bad music?), and in intonation (predicative adjectives tend to be pronounced with different tones, while attributive ones are intoned roughly the same). Irregular Adjectives A small group of four adjectives are irregular: sú "good", éra ''"true", nakobu "different", and ''inako "different". While sú is outright irregular, éra and inako each have distinct gendered forms despite beginning in vowels, while nakobu does not. sú "good"' In its singular forms, sú ''and tou'' are only irregular thanks to orthography (in Middle Atráve, u'' and ''ou were once separate vowels, but are now both pronounced /u/). However, in their dual and plural forms, a t'' is present between the stems and the suffixes (in Middle Atráve, the singular forms had the now-dropped final ''t - sut and tout.) The irregularity is likely due to its nature as the most common adjective in the language. éra "true" The adjective éra is a bit odd - despite having a distinct feminine singular form, in its dual and plural forms, the feminine merges into the masculine. Thus, the adjective's only irregularity is the plain form éra itself. nakobu "different" Nakobu has no gendered forms, despite beginning in a consonant. This is likely due to the instability of the consonant n'' having two masculine consonant counterparts (''l and r'', despite ''l being by far the most common). ''inako ''"different" Inako has distinct gender forms in all numbers, despite beginning in a vowel. Of curiosity is that it and nakobu come from the same etymology and share the same definition, despite having unrelated irregularities. Adjective Comparison Adjectives have comparative forms; but they also use a set of particles that come before the adjective (highly unusual, due to Atráve's highly right-branching syntax). zhá = most (for example, zhá sú ''"best") (synthetic: ''súai) bhal = more (for example, bhal sú "better") (synthetic: súe) nún ''= less (for example, ''nún sú ''"worse") ''me = least (for example, me sú "worst") (synthetic: me súai) Verbal Adjectives Verbal adjectives are identical to either the present or past participle of the verb, depending on whether or not the adjective describes a static or finished action (past participle) or a continuous, dynamic action (present participle): ''Na zele '''astaubhat "the closed door" Na zele '''astaubhar' "the closing door" Verbal adjectives inflect for number, but not for gender: ''Sout thazazdim '''r'aimanat'itam' "the broken windows" ''Lo okostim '''r'aimanat'itam' "the broken tables" Noun Adjectives Most nouns can be converted into adjectives by adding the suffix ''-rat (which has a meaning similar to ''-like''). Unlike verbal adjectives, noun adjectives are inflected for both gender and number. Syntax Atráve is almost always a VSO language, although SVO is also acceptable in most cases, usually used to emphasize the subject. Sua''' la yexev. I '''am' (a) person. ''Lakou sa hún lal.'' The man drinks water. As subject pronouns are often dropped, some Atráve sentences seem to be SVO. ''Séu '''kisavata. ''You '''are (an) author (female). Whenever an auxiliary verb requires another form of the verb, usually the ''-ga'' form, then the ''-ga'' form is usually treated as the object of the sentence. Rarely, a progressive verb form can be shown through using a form of viga ''followed by the infinitive: 'Som' la '''kisavatega. I am writing. Relative Clauses and Pronouns Atráve uses three relative pronouns: ká,'' riv'', and'' hos.'' - Ká is used when the subject of the relative clause is human (whether singular, dual, or plural). Thus, it translates very clearly to "who". It contracts to k' before vowels. Áila sa kotreví '''ká' zúrta ben azfozfa''! He's the thief who stole my cake yesterday! San is na zendrai '''kanshot trá shanai. ''She is the police officer who works the hardest. - ''On is used when the subject of the relative clause is a non-human noun... Ra Missouri sa benesi daya '''on' asraitatù then Thomase Jefferson shabh.'' Missouri was the final state that had been founded during Thomas Jefferson's life. San sa pení íca xolúmbabhat on dam kosú ve 1% tólaro. The penny is an American coin that has the value of 1/100 of a dollar. Jízhrav béd '''on' heira móla laún''. "They told me that there was a battle there." Tusu be '''on' tokerev tén çoitam in sout ayastoula nai sa asakure. It annoys me '''that' people on the Internet criticize each other so much. On ''construction An interesting thing in Atráve is how the pronoun "which" is formed, especially with a preposition before it. It is formed by placing the preposition, followed by the appropriate article that represents the noun, and then the relative pronoun ''on. This is also done when a preposition would be at the end of a clause. This is useful because the article used always reflects the noun that is being discussed in the relative clause. San ila na simaxa '''le na on' sómta na vayasút. This is the movie '''with which' he won the award. OR This is the movie he won the award with. Here, the preposition le is followed by the article-turned-pronoun na (which is used as the noun is feminine and in the common case), and followed by on, which introduces the relative clause. San ben ghaiman '''deál na on' mad ajúsiva''. That's my family about which you're talking. OR That's my family that you're talking about. It is worth noting that in Atráve, prepositions ending clauses are almost always a big no-no (for lack of a better term). Thus, the on construction is used to carry prepositions over from dangling at the end of the clause. In "vernacular" Atráve, on ''is often contracted to '''n after sa, na, i, or e''. Na yexev v'i 'n kestam ben masula. The person '''for whom' I cast my vote. Passive Voice The passive voice in Atráve is remarkably similar to that of the Indo-European languages, relying on a simple construction involving the past participle and the instrumental preposition le: Conjugated form of san + patient + past participle + le + agent For example: Kisavatra''' Charles Dickens ila mimat. Charles Dickens wrote that book. 'Ra' ila mimat kisavatat le Charles Dickens. That book was written by Charles Dickens. As mentioned above, the past participle is formed by adding ''-at to verbs ending in a consonant, and ''-t'' to verbs ending in a vowel. There are two irregularities, though: verb stems ending in ''-abh'' or ''-agh'' have the past participle endings ''-aubhat'' and ''-aughat''. For example, astabh "close", astaubhat "closed". Subject-Dropping Atráve is a pro-drop language. Subjects, most commonly those represented by personal pronouns or simple pronouns such as esdi/azdi "this" or ila "that", can be dropped from the sentence. This is because verbs usually indicate the subject of the verb clearly, and the subject of the sentence can often be derived from previous sentences or context. The magic of subject-dropping is demonstrated below: Them '''la' na 'anüsi ''Friends. ''Estolua '''la on sé '''men xotubh. I like the show Friends. I think that it is funny. Th''e''m na anüsi Friends. Estolua on sé xotubh. (I) like the show Friends. (I) think that (it) is funny. Although there are no environments in which a subject is needed, there are some times where they are needed for clarity. Atráve pronouns help disambiguate sentences very well, as they inflect for noun class, gender, and number. Damua savuan, a damua pet. ¿Mav men lót hanak? ''I have a glass, and I have a cup. Where is it? As ''savuan is feminine while pet is masculine, clearly the men pronoun refers to the glass. If the speaker had said set, then they would be talking about the cup. Lexicon Atráve's lexicon currently consists of about 433 nouns, 230 verbs, and 195 adjectives (up from 372 nouns, 158 verbs, and 156 adjectives). This is about enough vocabulary to write about any subject in basic depth, although vocabulary runs dry quickly when talking about science and technology, philosophy, occupations, law, and even seemingly simple things like food and daily routines. Even some basic words remain missing; the word for "to look for" (vèdega) was not created until more than a year and a half after the language was created. Despite having only around 900 dictionary words, Atráve's complex inflection means that there are more than 18,000 distinct word forms in the language. Nouns have either 3 or 12 inflected forms, adjectives either 27 or 54; and verbs around 45. As a strict a priori ''language, loanwords make up a small amount (less than 5% of Atráve vocabulary) and are disappearing fast as new words are created. However, proper names (''Tom, Jane) and names specific to popular culture or a place (Quiddich, baguette) remain the same in Atráve, spelling and all. However, in languages written with a non-Latin script, loanwords are spelled as per Atráve spelling rules (samurai, aníme). In the one official dictionary (n'Atrábhén Mímtat na Mimat thá), nouns are typically listed by gender, verbs by their ''-ga'' ending, and adjectives by their feminine form. In future versions, each section will itself be listed alphabetically. (Author's note: I'm not exactly sure when I'm going to upload the lexicon. It really needs to be organized before I post it, but that'll be a pain.) Example text Atráve: San atrábhe mimshe asraitat sto hánsti shi-naot a sat-tilkêe. Nai sedo bár men teiga míma nisut-naizh a nó-sat, le sout on hu kisavatega dazdi nasitam, a kotebh hei nas léur àj kalisiga. Sei, éra san, hém la nasiga yagada vot sedo, man seún shak som, prazhnar deál ben mimshe fosterat nai sa asatakure. English: Atráve is a language created in 2014. Right now, it has about 670 words, with which some things can be written, although there is still much to be finished. Yes, that's right, I could be doing almost anything right now, but here I am, talking about my made-up language on the Internet. Category:Languages